DRFP Cover Letter_FDSSIV.pdf

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Goddard Space Flight Center

Greenbelt, MD 20771

July 8, 2024

Reply to Attn of: 175

TO: All Potential Offerors

SUBJECT: Draft Request for Proposal (DRFP), Solicitation No. 80GSFC24R0027, for

Flight Dynamics Support Services (FDSS) IV

You are invited to review and comment on the National Aeronautics and Space

Administration (NASA) Goddard Space Flight Center’s Flight Dynamics Support Services

(FDSS) IV solicitation. The principal purpose of this requirement is to acquire flight dynamics support and related services under Code 590, Mission Engineering and Systems

Analysis (MESA) Division and Code 500 Engineering Technology Directorate (ETD) at

Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) to support both external and internal stakeholders including the four main GSFC science Lines of Business (LOBs): Astrophysics, Earth

Science, Heliophysics and Planetary Science. The contractor shall provide the following scope of work requirements in the flight dynamics discipline: systems engineering, analysis

& algorithm development, software tool development, operations support, conjunction assessment, infrastructure maintenance, and strategic technology advancements.

NASA will conduct this acquisition as a small business set-aside. This competitive acquisition will result in a Cost-Plus-Fixed Fee (CPFF) contract. The contract will have an effective ordering period of 5 years from the contract effective date. The North American

Industry Classification System (NAICS) code for this acquisition is 541330 without the

Exception 1 (Military and Aerospace Equipment) and the small business size standard is

$25.5M.

Industry Feedback

Given our strong commitment to having a fair and open competition for the follow-on contract of Flight Dynamics Support Services (FDSS), the government requirement development team has proactively taken tangible steps to encourage a wider range of companies to bid. These following steps, which consist of removing barriers to competition, are:

1) A comprehensive restructuring of the FDSS Statement of Work (SOW) was completed to ensure an accurate and clear reflection of how flight dynamics work is executed at GSFC and how the government views this development of flight dynamics work into the future. The

SOW was restructured to highlight key areas of flight dynamics support including systems engineering, analysis, software, infrastructure, operations, and strategic initiatives. Each of these areas were clearly broken out and more fully defined. In addition, Goddard-specific jargon that may require previous exposure was identified and either defined along with possible examples or removed.

2) The Orbital Safety Analysis (OSA) work out of the Vandenberg and Dahlgren Airforce bases on the current FDSS-III contract was identified as a particularly steep barrier to entry given the narrow technical expertise required and the corresponding Department of Defense

(DoD) security clearance requirements. When considering the scope of work for the follow-on contract, the government took immediate steps to remove this work from the FDSS-IV

SOW.

3) A complete and thorough consolidation and redefinition of the labor categories and descriptions was completed by the government to provide clarity for companies to more easily map their internal labor categories into the ones being used on FDSS-IV.

Finally, it is important to note that when it comes to the flight dynamics tools used to support

NASA missions, the Center is tool agnostic, not dictating the use of one specific tool over another. There are a plethora of tools that can be used for flight dynamics mission support that are utilized based upon the specific mission’s requirements. The Navigation and Mission

Design Branch would like to emphasize that it is much more important that any potential bidder demonstrate fundamental technical soundness in response to the RFP and the evaluation factors set forth in Section L.

Potential offerors are encouraged to comment on all aspects of the draft solicitation, including the requirements, schedules, proposal instructions, and evaluation approaches, any perceived safety, occupational health, security (including information technology security), environmental, export control, and/or other programmatic risk issues associated with performance of the work. Potential offerors should identify any unnecessary or inefficient requirements.

Potential offerors should ensure its company is listed in the online database(s) for the following:

(1) System for award management: https://www.sam.gov/SAM/

(2) U.S. Department of Labor Veterans’ Employment and Training Service, VETS-4212

Reports: https://vets4212.dol.gov/vets4212/

(3) Date Universal Numbering System (and the transition to the US Government’s unique entity identifier (UEI)): https://www.gsa.gov/about-us/organization/federal-acquisition-service/office-of-systems-management/integrated-award-environment-iae/iae-information-kit/unique-entity-identifier-update

The successful offeror must pass an Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) clearance before contract award (See FAR 22.805).

The current planned release date for the Final Request for Proposal (RFP) is on or about

October 2, 2024, with proposals being due approximately 30 calendar days later.

The anticipated contract award date is August 28, 2025, with a October 28, 2025 contract effective date. The contract will be performed onsite at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

(GSFC) and offsite at the Contractor’s facilities.

The following additional information is provided to assist in understanding this acquisition:

1. A Phase-in period will be conducted. Phase-in will be 60 days and will be performed under a separate Firm Fixed Price contractual vehicle.

2. The Government will make available existing Installation-Accountable Government

Property (IAGP) for onsite contract performance [and Government Furnished

Property (GFP) for offsite use at the Contractor’s facility as described in the DRFP.

3. After release of the Draft RFP, the FDSS IV Industry Day is anticipated to be held

July 17, 2024. Notice will be posted on the acquisition website noted below.

4. Provision 52.237-1 Site Visit is included in the DRFP. Information regarding industry day is included in the Industry Day-Site Visit Announcement and General

Registration Form attachments posted on www.SAM.gov.

5. NASA has determined that this acquisition may give rise to a potential organizational conflict of interest (OCI). Offerors should refer to NFS clause 1852.209-71

Limitation of Future Contracting, for a description of the potential conflict(s) and any restrictions on future contracting.

6. Please note a TOP SECRET facilities clearance is required for this acquisition in accordance with the DD Form 254, Contract Security Classification Specification.

Offerors shall, at a minimum, have an established Secret facility clearance at the time of proposal submittal. If the selected offeror does not have a Top-Secret facility clearance at the time of selection, the offeror shall obtain one prior to performance of any tasks requiring a Top-Secret facility clearance. This clearance shall be maintained throughout the life of the contract. Offerors shall include in their proposal, their CAGE code for verification of current security clearance status. No Offeror will be considered for award who does not have at least a Secret level facility clearance in place by the due date for receipt of proposals. In accordance with CFR 121.103(h)(4), a joint venture may be awarded a contract requiring a facility security clearance where either the joint venture itself or the individual partner(s) to the joint venture that will perform the necessary security work has (have) a facility security clearance.

Since the facility security clearance is required to perform primary and vital FDSS IV requirements, the lead small business partner to the joint venture must possess the required facility security clearance.

7. Proposals for this solicitation are required to be submitted through NASA’s

Enterprise File Sharing and Sync Box (EFSS Box), a FedRAMP Moderate certified platform. Potential offerors, especially those that have not previously submitted a proposal utilizing NASA’s EFSS Box, are encouraged to review the solicitation instruction entitled “Electronic Proposal Delivery - Proposal Marking and Delivery

Through NASA’s EFSS Box” which provides instructions related to the submission of proposal via EFSS Box. Offerors are encouraged to check with their corporate IT staff to determine if there are firewall restrictions that would need to be addressed prior to the submission of proposal files through NASA’s EFSS Box.

In order to control and protect sensitive data owned by the Government and its Contractors, NASA policy requires all acquisition-related documents be released in Adobe Portable

Document Format (PDF).

Documents related to this acquisition, including this letter, the solicitation, attachments, exhibits, any amendments and links to online reference/technical/bidders library will be attainable electronically from the World Wide Web through the Government-wide point of entry website at www.SAM.gov. Potential Offerors are requested to periodically monitor the websites for updates.

NASA FAR Supplement (NFS) clause 1852.215-84, OMBUDSMAN, is applicable. The

Ombudsman for this acquisition is Ray Rubilotta, Associate Director, Raymond.j.rubilotta@nasa.gov.

This DRFP is not a solicitation and NASA is not requesting proposals. This DRFP does not commit NASA GSFC to pay any proposal preparation costs, nor does it obligate NASA

GSFC to procure or contract for this requirement. This request is not an authorization to proceed, and does not authorize payment for any charges incurred by the offeror for performing any of the work called for in this solicitation.

Any comments regarding the DRFP should be submitted electronically in writing, to Jonnelle

Goff, Contracting Officer, at Jonnelle.C.Goff@nasa.gov, within 14 calendar days after the release of this DRFP. If a respondent believes their comments contain confidential, proprietary, competition sensitive, or business information, those questions/comments shall be marked appropriately. However, questions that are marked as containing confidential, proprietary, competition sensitive or business information will not be provided a Government response. The Government will consider all comments received in preparation of the Final

RFP. To the extent a comment leads the Government to revise the acquisition approach or requirements, the change will be reflected in the Final RFP. Some DRFP questions and comments may receive a posted response to the GPE if the Contracting Officer determines that a response would facilitate additional understanding of the solicitation. The Government may also respond via the GPE to comments and/or questions received following the issuance of the Final Request for Proposal (RFP).

Jonnelle Goff

Contracting Officer

Enclosure:

Draft RFP# 80GSFC24R0027